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Bing Bans 'Computer Support' Ads From Its Network (mspoweruser.com)
An anonymous reader writes: Microsoft has changed the terms of service for its Bing Ad network to disallow ads which offer computer support service. Its Bing Ads User Safety Policy now reads: Bing Ads disallows the promotion of third party online technical support services to consumers because of serious quality issues that can impact end user safety. These ads mislead users, tricking them to believe that their PC is infected. This is clearly a move to block scammers from making victims of Bing users, but any and all third party tech support ads will be blocked, including, perhaps legitimate ones.
Wouldn't it just be easier to ban Windows users from Bing? Solves several problems at once. :)
This will also help to hide how much support is needed for their OS and make it seem better than it is.
-- ssoorrrryy,, dduupplleexx sswwiittcchh oonn.. -Quote found on actual fortune cookie.
"Computer support" scams are so common these days. I am glad that someone is doing something about curbing them.
They pretty on the computer illiterate and at best part you from your money for no reason. At worst they install whatever the hell they want while they are providing remote "support".
It's nice to see a company say no to revenue in order to help their users.
My eyes reflect the stars and a smile lights up my face.
I'm all for blocking the scams, but how rampant is that, really?
Is this your first day on the Internet?
All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
But banning ALL ads? Even for legitimate services? Like say if you're already infected by a scammer and you need help. This is a lazy measure with a real impact on legitimate businesses.
I will say for non-savvy users, many of these adds are pretty convincing in the way they masquerade as installed software notifications. Many average users just don't realize it's a browser window running some bogus add. Though it would be nice if malware detection could do a complete scan in 5 seconds.
It's kinda interesting. Even when MS is doing something that looks user-oriented and customer-friendly on the outside one can't help but wonder how they're trying to screw someone.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Its my understanding that it is just the ads they aren't allowing. If you specifically search for a computer repair service I'm sure you will still get hits.
If an ad says nothing about the current condition of the reader's computer, I see no legitimate reason to block it.
MS risks getting into anti-trust legal problems again for blocking other IT co's. Perhaps they are willing to take that gamble in court now that they could argue mobile OS's are encroaching on Windows sales.
Table-ized A.I.
Scammers don't actually infect you, other than possibly with panic. Having an ad play that says your system is compromised, so you need to call this number, does not actually compromise your system.
LOL, as if "legitimate computer support businesses" were a thing that actually existed. Shysters and con-artists, the lot of them!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Nah, just someone who uses adblockers.
I'm always aghast when I look at the internet on a non-adblocked computer. The impact of having adblockers and tools like privacy badger is easy to forget until you don't have them.
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
It's hard these days for people who think being an asshole is an essential part of their being
Incorrect. In the US, our right to be an asshole is protected by the Constitution. Unlike other countries, we don't need some cobbled together justification to be dicks to other people, we embedded it into our cultural DNA. That's true freedom.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
Windows had detected a dangerous virus on your computer. Click here to remove.
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
I don't know about you but the number of ads I have seen for legitimate 3rd party support or anti-virus for that matter is very tiny compared to the crap ware masquerading as those services.
Extremely, and I bet there really aren't any legitimate support services using these types of ads.
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
But if you offer a service and wanted to increase your exposure, you still can't buy placement.
It is right on the Start Menu. It has the full documentation of all Windows features and settings and a fully searchable database of all the error codes and easter eggs. Well that SOUNDED good, didn't it???!!!!
Scammers don't actually infect you
I've seen persistent adware trying to get you to call their #. Very likely could have come from clicking a sacammer ad.
There's also the tricks for making a persistent browser tab that a typical user doesn't know how to get rid of, even after restarting their computer.
It's hard to say without knowing what the specific limits are.
Would an advertisement for an anti-malware product run afoul of this new policy, given that the ad is straightforward and not waving an alarmist "Your PC is infected" message at the user? technically that's not an ad for support, per se, but an actual software product.
I can also understand the existence of "legitimate" third party tech support services, but I'm not sure how many use cases there are for such a service to be advertising itself via a search engine. That really seems like it'd be mostly scam/trojan territory.
If Microsoft isn't overzealous about the rule, it's possible that any disruption of legitimate business would be minimal. However, I'd not be surprised if some fake AV peddler tried to take MS to court over it.
One of these days, I'm going to cut you into little pieces.
Are you just conviently ignoring the fact that 99% of those tech support ads online are scammers?
It's so bad there are dozens of YouTube channels dedicated to wasting the scammer's time.
These scammers will say anything is a virus or hackers. Like they will tell people to run netstat and say these connections are all hackers. Or they will have them open msconfig and say "see, not all your services are running...you need to pay us $500."
Then if you do pay, they delete everything or run syskey and try to make you pay for the password.
In short they are being blocked because they are not legit.
Also, let's not forget that bing is private property of Microsoft. It's literally their way or the highway.
Microsoft apparently doesn't want Windows users deciding to use anybody but them to support their OS.
Microsoft does not provide support their OS for the majority of people using that. That's the OEM's job.
You're quoting the general policy, not the new policy:
Bing Ads disallows the promotion of third party online technical support services to consumers
Weird. Yesterday there was a story about Google pulling ads for payday loan operations and today, this. The comments about the Google story ended up being mostly about the relative merits of the payday loan industry with a few about how this was Google suppressing its competition, although I don't know of any Google or Alphabet (I guess?) forays into consumer finance. The arguments that this is Microsoft protecting its business interests are more compelling here, because MS sells software and support services.
I wonder if this isn't all part of a larger game. Facebook is facing heat for using editorial discretion to alter what content it showed to its users. Suddenly Google and Microsoft announce initiatives to do (in some ways) the same thing. Effectively, the company is showing you stuff that you might reasonably believe to be selected by an agenda-free algorithm, but in fact the companies are modifying the results to align with some (not necessarily public) agenda. Are these new ad-suppression campaigns actually maneuvering to support the right of content/information providers to select the information that they show their users?
"Preceded by itself yields falsehood" preceded by itself yields falsehood.
I'm not sure how many use cases there are for such a service to be advertising itself via a search engine.
Some dumb user types a complete sentence into Bing - "Somebody please fix my computer."
A legitimate computer shop could advertise on the keywords "fix my computer" and display an add, where their organic search placement might be low for those terms.
Except that methane is odorless.
There are several chemicals that contribute to the smell of farts:
- skatole (by-product of meat digestion)
- indole (by-product of meat digestion)
- methanethiol (a sulfur compound)
- dimethyl sulfide (a sulfur compound)
- hydrogen sulfide (rotten egg odor, flammable)
- volatile amines
- short chain fatty acids
- feces (if present in the rectum)
- bacteria
Source
I come here for the love
To be fair, they said "methane burst" and not simply "methane", which could be defined to include your list.
When I call the gas company up, I say I smell gas. I don't say "I smell leak-detection odorant."
No - it's called experience..
How about we just take away *your* recreational drugs.
"Old man yells at systemd"
If the adds on your add network are able to trick users into believing that the popup is not an add, then the problem does not lie with "computer support" adds, the problem lies with the capability/permissions that those adds have on the user's system. If the adds can do this shit, why does MS think the problems are limited only to "computer support" adds?
There are effective levels of compromise that can be done here.
For starters, A power-users set of options may be turned on, after viewing a scare page.
Something along the lines of:
"If you are reaching this site at the direction of a technical support rep claiming to work for Microsoft, Close this window now and hang up. Microsoft support will NEVER tell you to change ANY options in this control pannel. By setting the options in this control pannel, you acknowledge that you are taking personal responsibility for the health and reliability of your system, and release Microsoft from any and all waranty coverage, without exception, agree that you are no longer entitled to any support of any kind from Microsoft, and agree to not hold Microsoft liable for any damages or loss of revinue involving this system. If you agree with these conditions, click OK below. If not, close this window now."
Then have all the deep-system options a hardcore power user could want inside. To prevent these options being set programmatically behind people's backs by malware, it needs to have crytpographic exchange involving the user's input to enable, or some similar blockade to stop malware turning it on silently.
For the people that really want to manage their device themselves, such an option should be available IMO.
So is MS. They are just a bit more gradual in their screwification.
But a lot of their Bing traffic is due to their near-monopoly on x86 desktops & laptops. It has potential anti-trust (anti-competitive) implications.
Table-ized A.I.
I hope they sue Microsofts' asses off for restraint of trade and tortious interference with business relationships.
I, too, learned some big words this week. I didn't feel compelled to strut them about incorrectly in public, though.
Back in the real world Microsoft isn't required to do business with anyone they don't want to, barring a short list of explicitly banned reasons for doing so. They certainly aren't a duopoly as they still have less than 5% of the search market.
Are you also against Google dropping ads from payday loans? Or was it from comments on that story that you learned words like "tortious interference", and now you're trotting them out over here to sound clever and contrarian?
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Their product naming and slogans are so PHB, it's pitiful. "Power Point", "Excel", "Outlook", and applications are "solutions" in Visual Studio. I bet a product named "Microsoft Synergy" is on its way.
Table-ized A.I.
Chrome cleared up the unclosable browser tab a few years back, with the failsafe check box to prevent the tab from opening any more windows.
A few weeks back someone found a way around that. I haven't stumbled across it again.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
At worst they install whatever the hell they want while they are providing remote "support".
Seriously, who the hell do these Sun Microsystems people think they are, anyway.
Yeah, and if your doctor sends you an email that your prescription for Viagra is ready to be picked up, you probably aren't going to get that either. I'm OK with that.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
"Look, we're relevant too! Google banned something abusive, and we did too! And anyway, no one using Windows will ever need tech support (and no one else uses Bing), so who needs those silly ads anyway?"
PHB is Microsoft's primary target, it's who they sell to: not the fortune 500, but the smaller businesses. The consumer PC was just a lucky thing that happened to them on the side.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
At worst they indulge in credit card fraud or delete your files. I've seen both.
Silence is a state of mime.
I'm all for blocking the scams, but how rampant is that, really?
Seriously, it's rampant. I get calls every week and so do a lot of people I know.
Count yourself as lucky if you haven't gotten on their list yet.
They have fully-staffed, pro-level call centers that work 24/7 calling people. I know a lot of legit businesses that don't have that level of "support".
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Scammers don't actually infect you, other than possibly with panic.
Ummm, yeah, they do. They either get you to go to a site that infects you or they con you into loading a "Remote Service" app that lets them infect you.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
If someone is using Bing for search, they've already been scammed once.
Ideology: A tool used primarily to avoid the bother of thinking.
There's a rant somewhere on The Register about MS trying to shift to Enterprise and throwing small customers under the bus in the process. Bigger PHB's with bigger wallets.
Table-ized A.I.
Yeah...but IE and Firefox both still have it. I see it more on IE than anything else.
In fact, the USA is such a great country that an asshole can grow up to be President.